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Kōbun Otogawa (乙川 弘文, Otogawa Kōbun) (February 1, 1938 – July 26, 2002) [1] was an American Sōtō Zen priest.
Houn Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi – his students and friends simply called him KOBUN – was born on February 1st. 1938 in Kamo, Japan, in his parents’ Zen temple JOKOJI. He was the youngest of six children. After the early loss of his biological father he was adopted by his later master, Hozan Koei Chino Roshi.
May 12, 2015 · That is why some books refer to Kôbun Chino instead of Kôbun Otogawa. In his biography about Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson wrote that his students felt Kôbun spoke a horrible English, full of poetic and dramatic sentences.
Because Kobun's former master, Chino Roshi, had realized that Kobun would never return to Kotaiji, Chinos temple in Japan, he formally separated from Kobun. Kobun was then re-adopted into the Otogawa lineage and took his original family name.
At a gathering of some of Otogawa's long-term students in Santa Cruz, California, shortly before Otogawa's death, a student asked, "Kobun, why do we sit?" He replied: We sit to make life meaningful. The significance of our life is not experienced in striving to create some perfect thing. We must simply start with accepting ourselves.
Kobun emphasized “guerrilla Zen” (realizing our true nature in the midst of everyday life) rather than zendo-based practice, kept sidestepping or rejecting the mantle of authority that his students tried to confer on him, and insisted on being called by his given name rather than being addressed as “Sensei” or “Roshi.”
People also ask
Why does Kobun have the surname Chino?
Why did Chino Roshi change his name from Kobun to Otogawa?
Why did Chino Roshi train Kobun?
What happened to Kobun?
Chino Roshi, without heirs, trained Kobun so that, in the Japanese tradition, Kobun would inherit the abbacy of Kotaiji. Chino Roshi had a deep, resonant voice and chanting, not Zazen, was his main practice.
